12 Clarendon Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Victorian mid-terraced two-bay three-storey with attic Georgian-style townhouse, built c.1853-6. Rectangular on plan with projecting two storey rear return abutted by two single storey blocks to yard with a two storey building to N boundary of yard. Principal elevation faces South onto Clarendon Street set behind low rendered wall with painted black decorative iron railings, with trefoil cast iron finials above sandstone coping. Built as part of a terrace row of similar brick houses to W, No 12 is internally connected at FF level to No 10 (HB01/22/022 C), which is the first of three similar terrace houses to E which are set back from the main terrace.

Pitched natural slate roof with angled black clay ridge tiles and two roof lights to S with a single dormer to the rear N. Terrace is stepped at each house following contour of the hill each with a red brick rectangular section chimney to their E. No 12 has seven buff clay chimney pots to red brick chimney at E; cast iron semi-circular guttering discharging to circular section downpipes shared with No 14.

Principal south elevation is of Flemish brick bond; windows are square-headed with two 6/6 timber sliding sash windows to ground floor right and two 6/6 timber sliding sash windows to first and second floors, no window horns, painted stone window cills; three-centred arched opening to entrance doorway to left with moulded cornice supported by columns of the Doric order either side of four-panelled painted timber door and radial fanlight above. Brass door furniture.

The East is abutted by adjoining terrace No.14 (HB01/22/022 E), and to the West, No.10 (HB01/22/022 C).

Rear north elevation, consists of a two storey return to NW abutted at GF by mono-pitch extension which connects the building with a two storey pitched roof block at rear of yard, adjacent to rear access route. Single storey mono-pitch extension to NE abuts three storey return of No 10 Clarendon Street. Overall, elevation is abutted by a number of extensions of both Nos. 12 and 10 which form a small central enclosed courtyard to No 12. Two storey pitched roof block at rear of site is attached on its E to a single storey flat roofed extension of No 10.

Setting:
Built as part of a row of eleven similar Georgian-style, early to mid-Victorian townhouses which line the north side of Clarendon Street. The front of the property is bounded by Clarendon Street set behind a low rendered plinth wall with replacement cast iron railings enclosing a small hard surfaced area. Enclosed yard to rear with laneway beyond providing access to the rest of the terrace.

Materials:
Roof Natural Slate
RWG Cast iron
Walling Brick
Windows Timber Sliding Sash

Historical information

Clarendon Street, characterised by its long terraces of Georgian-style townhouses, was laid out in the early-Victorian period with the construction of the first dwellings commencing in c. 1853. The laying out of similar terraced dwellings on Great James Street and Queen Street was necessitated by a period of growth in the economy and population of Londonderry that occurred in the mid-19th century. John Hume notes that during the period 1825-1850 ‘reconstruction of the city’s buildings [within the city walls] took place alongside the development, for the first time, of housing outside the walls at Bogside and Edenballymore’ (Hume, p. 147).

The first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1830) for the townland of Edenballymore records that the Clarendon Street area was originally rural hinterland with few significant structures. In 1830 the development of the city’s streets had extended no further than Waterloo Place, Abbey Street and William Street. In the first decades of the 19th century the only major construction north of the walls had been isolated structures such as the Londonderry Infirmary, the Lunatic Asylum and Foyle College (HB01/22/016) with little or no domestic architecture being erected during the same period. The only building in the area that predates the early-Victorian development was Foyle Cottage (HB01/21/006), a Regency house that was constructed c. 1815 and which, according to Calley, is ‘a pleasing composition which offers a gentle rebuke to some of the exuberance of later nearby buildings … one of it’s pleasant features is that it opens a gap in the long terraces’ (Calley, p. 116).

In The Annals of Derry, a survey of the city compiled by Robert Simpson and published in 1847, Simpson recorded that ‘all the district now covered by Great James’s Street, William Street, Little James Street … and the numerous lanes in that vicinity [originally comprised] meadow ground without a house’ (Simpson, p. 213). The initial development of housing in this area began in the late-Georgian period and continued into the Victorian era. With the construction of uniform rows of Georgian-style three-storey townhouses, a new affluent area was established that swiftly became the preferred residence of the city’s merchant and professional classes. The laying out of Clarendon Street, Great James Street and Queen Street followed a geometric street pattern which was characteristic of Georgian street development; the development signified the most ambitious project of town planning carried out in Londonderry since the construction of the walled city in 1613-19.

The contemporary 1847 plan of Londonderry, which depicted the final layout of Clarendon Street at least a decade before it was actually completed, recorded that the street was originally known as Ponsonby Street. The street was named after the Rt. Rev. Richard Ponsonby (1772-1853), Bishop of Derry and Raphoe. However, by the 1850s the street had been renamed Clarendon Street in honour of the Fourth Earl of Clarendon, George Villiers (1800-1870), Lord Lieutentant of Ireland between 1847 and 1852. The second edition of the Ordnance Survey map records that Ponsoby Street had been renamed Clarendon Street by at least 1853. Although the 1847 plan of Londonderry depicted that Clarendon Street extended from the quay up to Francis Street, only the bottom section of Clarendon Street (between the Strand Road and Queen Street) had been laid out by 1853.

The development of Clarendon Street progressed slowly throughout the 1850s. Mullin records that development of the remainder of the street did not recommence until the mid-1850s. In 1851 Skipton & Miller had advertised building ground on Clarendon Street, Queen Street and Patrick Street to be let in perpetuity. Griffith’s Valuation recorded that only nine dwellings had been constructed along the entire length of the street by 1856. In that year additional leases were advertised for building ground on the northern side of Clarendon Street (Mullin, p. 117).

No. 12 Clarendon Street was was one of the earliest townhouses to be constructed along the street. The building (along with the adjoining nos 14-20 Clarendon Street – HB01/22/002E-H) was erected prior to 1856 and was first recorded in Griffith’s Valuation in that year. This original terrace of five three-storey buildings was leased by the Rev. Henry Wallace (Moderator of the Presbyterian Synod of Ulster in 1839) and No. 12 Clarendon Street was individually valued at £25. Following Wallace’s death in 1887, nos 12-16 Clarendon Street continued to be owned by his personal estate until the 1930s (PRONI Wills). The 1901 census building return described No. 12 Clarendon Street was a 1st class building that consisted of ten inhabited rooms. Throughout its history the occupants of Clarendon Street were of the city’s merchant and professional classes, and in 1903 No. 12 Clarendon Street was occupied by a Mr. William McCandless, a local magistrate (Ulster Street Directories). By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) the entire row of nos 6-26 Clarendon Street was purchased outright by a Ms. Jennie Steen. The valuer increased the total rateable value of No. 12 to £32 at that time. Between 1935 and 1956 nos 10 and 12 Clarendon Street were combined into a single property (valued at £128) which was occupied by the Young Women’s Christian Association (Y.W.C.A.) during the 1950s. The Derry Housing Association acquired nos 10-12 Clarendon Street in 1970 and converted the former Y.W.C.A. Hall into a number of residential flats, the total value of which stood at £85 and 10 shillings by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72).

In 1978 the Department of the Environment designated Clarendon Street (and the surrounding streets) a Conservation Area ‘being an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance’ (Londonderry Clarendon Street Conservation Area Booklet). No. 12 Clarendon Street was subsequently listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that upgrades to the house were undertaken in 1997 when the building was reroofed, new gutters were installed, and the appearance of the building was brought into general line with the adjoining terrace. In c. 2000 the current two-storey rear extension was added to the building (NIEA HB Records).

Few of the mid-Victorian townhouses along Clarendon Street are now occupied as residential dwellings; the majority of the three-storey buildings were converted into offices for local dentist, solicitors and accountancy firms in the late-20th century. In 2013 Calley described nos 6-48 Clarendon Street as a ‘delightfully long red brick terrace of the mid-19th century … the buildings are nearly all the same, being three-and-a-half-storey, two-bay with most ground floors rather inelegantly squeezing in a doorway with two reduced scale window bays … depressed arched recessed timber-framed doorways have simple segmented fanlights and thin Doric columns supporting entablatures’ (Calley, p. 114). No. 12 Clarendon Street is currently in use as offices at the time of the Second Survey and is connected to the adjoining property No. 10 Clarendon Street (HB01/22/022 C) at FF and attic levels.

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/5/20/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1830)
2. PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnanec Survey Map (1853)
3. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16G – Griffith’s Valuation (1856)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11B-ZA – Annual Revisions (1862-1897)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2C-2F – Annual Revisions (1898-1931)
6. PRONI VAL/3/B/6/4 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935)
7. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/13 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
8. Robert Simpson’s ‘Annals of Derry’ (1847)
9. O’Hagan’s plan of Londonderry (1847)
10. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
11. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1918)
12. PRONI Wills Catalogue (25 Jul 1887)
13. First Survey Record – HB01/22/022 (No Date)
14. First Survey Image – HB01/22/022 (No Date)
15. NIEA HB Records – HB01/22/022

Secondary Sources
1. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013.
2. Ferguson, W. S; Rowan, A. J; Tracey, J. J., ‘List of historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in and near the city of Derry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1970.
3. Hume, J., ‘Derry beyond the walls: Social and economic aspects of the growth of Derry 1825-1850’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2002.
4. Mullin, T. H., Ulster’s Historic City: Derry – Londonderry’ Coleraine: Coleriane Bookshop, 1986.
5. Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.
6. ‘Londonderry Clarendon Street Conservation Area Booklet’ Department of the Environment, 1978.
7. ‘Design Guide for Clarendon Street Conservation Area’ Department of the Environment, 2012.

Online Resources
1. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - http://www.oxforddnb.com

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A mid-terrace two-bay three-storey with attic red brick Georgian-style townhouse, built c.1853-6 along with Nos.14-20 Clarendon Street (HB01/22/022E-H). It has group value with Nos. 6-10 & 14-48 (HB01/22/022A-C & E-U) which were built over an eight year period and line the north side of the street. Despite the loss of some original plan form, a proportion of original joinery survives internally and the exterior retains much historic character with a Georgian style doorway with moulded cornice, Doric columns and radial fanlight. Located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, the well preserved setting adds to its interest. The terrace represents the mid 19th century development of Londonderry and the house is a noteworthy example of the type of property built during this period of growth in the economy and population of the city.